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The seven women and 12 men, all former missionaries, were shown videos related to their religion - including a clip detailing their church's membership statistics - and were told to press a button when they 'felt the Spirit'.

When they pushed the button, their brain responses were recorded using MRI scans and their heart and breathing rates was also recorded.

The scans revealed that when the teenagers felt connected to God, an area of their brain called the nucleus accumbens was activated.

The nucleus accumbens is known as the brain's "reward centre" and it is also activated when people think about love, sex, drugs and gambling.

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Bioengineer Dr Michael Ferguson, who led the study, said: "When our study participants were instructed to think about a saviour, about being with their families for eternity, about their heavenly rewards, their brains and bodies physically responded."

Neuroradiologist Dr Jeff Anderson, who also led the study, said: "We're just beginning to understand how the brain participates in experiences that believers interpret as spiritual, divine or transcendent.

"In the last few years, brain imaging technologies have matured in ways that are letting us approach questions that have been around for millennia."

The findings, part of the Religious Brain Project which aims to understand how the brain operates in people with deep spiritual and religious beliefs, were published on November 29 in the journal Social Neuroscience.